[Leica] Myth and the Man

[jls at runbox.com (Jeffery Smith)]

Nobody can claim that Capa hated to be photographed. The worst subject I
can think of was the late Stephen Jay Gould, who would stop in
mid-presentation to completely trash an unsuspecting photographer who
was just trying to document the fact that the university was paying
enormous student fee bucks to have him speak. I really liked the guy
before he spoke at Tulane University. In one 2-hour lecture, he had
2,000 people convinced that he was an arrogant pr**k.

Mayby HCB is being confused with Sean Penn.




-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jls=runbox.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Buzz
Hausner
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 7:46 PM
To: 'Leica Users Group'
Subject: [Leica] Myth and the Man

Well, lots of people hate to be photographed for a variety of reasons,
some of them are photographers.  Regardless, Karen, you are perpetuating
another undocumented Cartier-Bresson myth (like never cropping an image,
never posing a picture, never using flash, using only a 50mm lens, &
cetera).

I am quite familiar with the literature by and about Cartier-Bresson,
and I am unaware of him ever saying that he "hated" to be photographed.
Indeed, there are a great many pictures of Cartier-Bresson.  See in
particular, "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, the Image and the Work."
Back in the Sixties, "Popular Photography" even ran a photographic essay
of Cartier-Bresson at work in New York's China Town which was prepared
and published with his cooperation.  It is true that he cultivated his
anonymity which he claimed made it easier for him to work unobtrusively.
Nonetheless, I suspect that when he worked in Africa, for instance, he
was about as unobtrusive as Leni Riefenstahl.  I find neither hypocrisy
nor irony in his known opinions.

        Buzz Hausner

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+buzz.hausner=verizon.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+buzz.hausner=verizon.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf
Of Karen Nakamura
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 7:21 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] BD PAWS


I find it ironic that people hold HCB as some kind of demi-god of 
stealth photography, but remember that he HATED to have his own 
photograph taken.   I think that is pure hypocrisy.


 
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